


Operation Australia

by CJtheWeeb



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Cause No Water hehehe, Definitley Some Bromance, Everyone Smells, F/M, I Hurt So Now You'll All Hurt Too, I Like My Characters to Suffer, I'm Indescisive So Sue Me, Junkrat the Living Trash Child, Junkrat's Potty Mouth, Mei Deserves Better But Oh Well, Rating May Change, Romance? The Awkward Kind, Tags Too, Violence For Sure, Yes I Brought in D.Va and Ana Based Only On Their Skins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-25 06:10:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12029805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CJtheWeeb/pseuds/CJtheWeeb
Summary: Mei's simple expedition into the Outback to study weather patterns quickly turns south when a couple of Junkers and their adoptive grandma pull her out of a hairy situation. Now trapped in an irradiated wasteland with madmen and women, Mei must figure out a way to escape with her life (and sanity) still intact.It's gonna start out fun but mark my words someone's gonna cry by the end of this shit.





	1. Prolouge-In Which Mei Realizes How Much the Outback Sucks

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The A-Mei-Zing Outback Adventure](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8457571) by [FunkyMeihem](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FunkyMeihem/pseuds/FunkyMeihem). 



> Yo shoutout to FunkyMeihem for inspiring me to write my own story, I love your work my dude it gives me hope for a better tomorrow. Please everyone go read The A_Mei_Zing Outback Adventure it's wonderful! Anyways, I promise I didn't steal your ideas I just really liked the theme and wanted to make my own version but even more Mad-Maxier.

“This is Mei-Ling Zou’s Expedition Journal, log 27. I am currently venturing into the Outback once again in an attempt to examine the effect of severe radiation on local weather formations. Yet another sandstorm interrupted yesterday’s excursion…at this rate I’m never going to finish my documentation of this godforsaken place…”  
Mei sighed deeply, switching off the recording and erasing it. She was trying so very hard to keep her logs unbiased and professional, but her growing bitterness made that increasingly difficult. The expedition was dragging out far longer than originally intended due to the freakish nature of the Outback’s storms, brutal terrain, and scorching heat. Mei was only two hours in to her current expedition yet found herself already drenched in sweat, despite the air conditioning blasting away inside the hovercar and her normal winter attire abandoned for a grey tank top and some blue shorts. Even Snowball, her small robotic companion, seemed sluggish from the heat as it whirred pitifully in her lap.  
Turning her attention to the window and the bleak, dusty landscape outside Mei found herself lost in thought. “Maybe if I record in English,” she pondered, “I’ll have a harder time coming up with insults.”  
Her guide, a gruff middle-aged man with skin so tan it looked like leather, chuckled quietly and rasped “Not enjoying yer stay much anymore miss?”  
Mei turned her head to look at the driver, struggling to come up with an appropriate response before stating politely “It’s certainly an…experience. Sydney itself was quite lovely, but out here it seems a little intimidating. I’m sure I’ll adapt though!” She smiled gently, patting Snowball’s overheated head as she did so.  
“Hah!” the man guffawed, “Ain’t intimidating, it’s Hell. No-one in their right mind’s out here these days, ‘cept you and me of course.” He tossed an overexaggerated wink Mei’s way before bursting out into another bout of harsh laughter.  
Mei gave a gentle laugh so as not to appear rude as she turned back towards the window. She found no humor in the situation, “But” she realized “it really is something of a hellscape out there.” With this in mind, Mei cast her large brown eyes over the landscape rolling past her window. For miles around there was nothing but reddish-brown dirt and sand, completely devoid of life save for the occasional shriveled weed. The sky was bluish-grey, seen only through an ugly haze of some sort of air pollutant Mei herself has been unable to identify as of yet, and it stretched on until it seemed to merge with the land in the distance. Not a drop of water was to be found, unless she counted the numerous mirages caused by the blazing heat. “And people live out here” she marveled.  
Turning away from the desolation, Mei cast an awkward glance at her companion. Having arrived in Sydney nearly a month ago laden with supplies commissioned for her by Winston, Mei had almost immediately set out to find a guide to help her explore the irradiated Outback and gather data. However, she quickly found that the mere mention of such an expedition lead to fearful mutterings such as “too dangerous, not that place” and something about “junkers” followed by a prompt “No.” Frustrated, Mei had scoured the surrounding cities for three days straight until she came finally came upon a small settlement near the edge of the populated zone. There she had stumbled upon the man that was now settled in the driver’s seat. Apparently, he frequently delivered food and supplies to a junkertown located about three and a half hours outside of the city, and had agreed to escort her around the outskirts of the Outback. Mei had quickly discovered that the so-called “outskirts” were massive swathes of forsaken landscape that took hours upon hours to cross through before her weather instruments could start to take any useful readings.  
Drowsily, Mei recalled the strange exchange leading up to their eventual arrangement as she struggled not to dose off.  
“Ain’t gonna take you nowhere but the Green Zone, ya hear?”  
“What is the Green Zone exactly?”  
“Minimal radiation, and the junkers don’t much like getting too near the city. Not enough scrap for them.”  
“Why don’t the ‘junkers’, as you all call them, just come live in the city?”  
At that the guide had simply broken into cackling laughter, followed by a demand for a steep markup in the amount of credits she had originally offered in exchange for his services. And now here they were, once again traveling out into the Green Zone for Mei to set up her monitors and Snowball’s sensors for a few hours to collect information about the atmosphere of the wretched place. Normally she loved studying out in the field, but Mei honestly found herself looking forward to the returning to Watchpoint Gibraltar, and more importantly, good air conditioning.  
Fiddling with a loose bit of string on the hem of her top, Mei was yet again struck with the realization that in all their time together, she’d never bothered to ask her guides name. She had simply referred to him as “sir” in speech and as “her guide” mentally, having been too intimidated upon their first meeting to ask his name and never working up the courage since. Every time she had an internal debate about learning his name, she eventually chickened out and resigned herself to permanent awkwardness. Now though, Mei found herself so bored and overheated that she couldn’t bring herself to care about social politeness, especially considering that the man next to her seemed to have very little.  
“Excuse me” she muttered quietly, avoiding eye contact as the man glanced over at her.  
“Huh? What, whatcha want now?” he asked gruffly.  
Slightly miffed, Mei replied “I was simply wondering if you had a name, considering you’ve never found an appropriate time to mention it.” She knew it was a little rude, especially since she was in the wrong to begin with, but Mei couldn’t help her temper flaring up when she was already so irritated.  
Grinning, the man rubbed at his stubbly chin and remarked “Heh, so she does have some fight in her after all.” Mei scowled slightly as he glanced in her direction, taking in a raspy breath between his teeth before replying “Hell I was wonderin if you’d ever get up the nards to ask. Hehe…well, if ya must know, my name’s…”  
BOOM  
Mei felt a blast of searing heat hit her left side as the hovercar flipped into the air, the explosion causing her ears to ring. She saw Snowball fly into the air, saw her papers and delicate instruments scatter around her, and oh weird why is the ground above us? Dazed and weightless, time for Mei seemed to slow to a crawl as the vehicle flew, spinning all the while. Suddenly the roof crunched in as the car landed, practically pinning her to her seat as the car continued to roll. Mei shut her eyes, screaming despite the screeching sounds of twisting metal drowning out her voice and tossing her around like a ragdoll.  
She felt the car roll once more, then twice, and finally three times before it tilted dangerous to the side, only to plop heavily down onto its undercarriage. The smell of hot metal and something burning filled her nose, choking her as Mei slowly opened her eyes, only to be greeted with the sight of crumpled metal roofing only inches from her face. Searing pain radiated through her skull, and Mei gazed down to find blood steadily dripping onto her top whilst Snowball lay dazedly at her feet along with her miraculously untouched glasses.  
Through a confused daze, Mei cast her eyes around the wrecked vehicle, attempting to understand what had just occurred. Her guide seemed to be in a state of shock, his eyes wide and staring straight ahead unseeing, a hand still gripping the wheel. The burning smell grew ever stronger, and with the beginnings of panic the small woman realized that she and her guide needed to get out of the car before fumes or fire got to them first. Unsteadily, she reached over and shook the arm of the man next to her, slurring out “We ne-need to get outta here…gotta get out, gotta go. Get up, common, we gotta go…” Mei’s words died in her throat and she wrenched her hand back in horror when her shaking caused the guide’s head to loll to one side, revealing a horrendous site.  
The better portion of his face had been seared off, charred black and glistening pinks replacing the once intact skin. An empty eye socket and exposed teeth grinned back at her, the other eye staring deadly at her in a state of permanent terror.  
Blind panic gripped the climatologist, and she grabbed Snowball and her glasses instinctively whilst desperately clawing her way out the shattered front window of the car to escape the horrible thing still burning inside. Dropping down onto the dirt below, waves of heat seemingly even hotter than the burning smashup she’d just escaped enveloped her, and instantly Mei felt nauseated and dizzy, her head pounding as her lungs protested the arid air. Every part of her body seemed to be experiencing some kind of pain, the worst culprits being her head and left leg as she began to stumble forwards.  
“I need to find help. Surely there’s help out here, just over that ridge there even. Just gotta move forward, gotta move need to move need to escape need water it’s so hot it hurts oh God help me please.”  
Mei found herself tumbling to the ground, groggily trying to continue moving forwards but finding herself only working her way further into the red, hot dirt beneath her. Finally, she collapsed, vision going blurry as she clawed sluggishly at the ground in a final attempt to keep moving. She gazed blindly up at the ridge ahead, the heat waves looking almost like a cloaked silhouette had appeared at the top of it before black nothingness enswathed her mind.


	2. In Which Mei Meets Her Smelly Saviors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mei wakes up to find that she is the exact opposite of alone.

Mei couldn’t tell where her nightmares ended and reality began. Blistering heat scalded her skin, sand filling her lungs as she hobbled through a desert of burning red sand, glowing like hot embers. Course, angry hands grabbed at her skin, dragging her down under the desert and slowly suffocating her as she twisted franticly in their grip. She clawed her way out, now emerging from an overheated cryo-pod only to find a shadowy beast with a single glowing red eye waiting for her, scooping her up in its leathery claws to spirit her away to a chamber made of liquid shadow. The heat finally gave way to cool liquid in her veins, making her sluggish and unable to escape from the beast or its scraggly pet, forced to lie still as its bright orange gaze eyed her hungrily.  
Sometimes a gremlin-like being appeared alongside the watchful creature, and they whispered exchanges in squeaky tones.  
“Why are you always watching her?” the gremlin asked the orange-eyed thing, “I’m boooored, come play with me! What’s so exciting about her anyways?”  
Unblinking, the creature waved the little animal off, saying “I like watching her sleep.”  
“…That’s really creepy. And still boring.”  
It sighed wistfully, saying “Sometimes she breathes too…I like it when she breathes.”

 

Mei groaned, eyes peeling open as she struggled to sit up, attempting to push the feverish dreams from her mind and discern where she was. Evidentially she’d been thrashing about in her sleep, for she was completely cocooned in a sweaty mess of clothes and a blanket. She blearily struggled to untangle herself from the scratchy blanket, only to let out a slight gasp of pain when her head throbbed from moving too quickly. Slowly now, she unwrapped herself and took note of the dull pain encompassing her body, head still pounding and left leg seemingly immobilized by layers of thick gauze. Mei finally managed to escape from her blanket, which appeared to be made of burlap, and squinted blindly into the surrounding darkness. She groped around in the gloom for her glasses, finally finding them on some sort of wooden pallet next to her and putting them on. Blinking, Mei cast a confused glance around the room she was currently in, trying in vain to make out anything by the weak light shining through numerous small holes in the siding.  
Little was discernable with the dim lighting as it filtered through thousands of dust particles drifting serenely through the air. She appeared to be some sort of small storage closet, filled with indistinct shadowy lumps shoved aside to make room for the cot Mei currently inhabited. The faint scent of gasoline permeated the air, alongside the unmistakable smell of singed metal.  
Squinting still, she hefted herself up slightly, only to find her gaze was suddenly met in the gloom.  
A pair of glowing orange eyes stared out of the darkness at her, wide and unblinking. Mei gaped back, rubbing at her eyes briefly to see if the images of her dreams were still haunting her mind. But no, as she pulled her hands away and her eyes adjusted to the feeble lighting Mei could make out a gangly body and an angular face that was stretched into a massive, feral grin. The thing before her was perched atop what seemed to be a workbench, hunched over like some sort of gruesome gargoyle. Abruptly it broke out into giggles, before lifting a hand and wiggling its fingers at her.  
“G’day sleepyhead!”  
Mei’s head throbbed slightly harder at his shrill voice, and she found herself trying to disappear into the cot beneath her as the thing leapt onto the ground and took a step towards her. Now illuminated by the dim light, Mei realized that it was not some gangly monster, but instead the _filthiest_ man she had ever had the displeasure of seeing. Every part of his looming figure was covered in soot or dirt, and it was evident that his burnt, patched shorts had probably never been washed. His patchy blonde hair was filled with ash, and the tips appeared to have been singed badly. Mei swore she even saw a few faint puffs of smoke drift up from the grimy locks. Rusty metal-orange appendages were strapped on in place of his right arm and leg, the latter of which squeaked slightly as he took another limping step towards her. The non-artificial leg was swathed in soiled bandages below the knee, wrapping all the way down into a single oversized, tatty boot. Clean-ish lines across his bare chest indicated that he must have been wearing a harness at some point. “ _This must be one of the junkers the city folk talked about_ ,” she mused.  
Mei’s mind ran wild, trying to figure out how she has wound up in this dark room with some man that looked like he’d been raised in a sewer. Struggling to organize her thoughts, the expedition and violent crash suddenly came back to her and she felt the air leave her lungs. Oh God, it had been so horrible; the screeching metal, the painful crash, the burning man staring at her- Mei cut off her ugly thoughts to curb her rising panic, instead choosing to gaze up at those glowing amber eyes as she cleared her hoarse throat.  
“ _Where…where am I?_ ” she questioned huskily. The man tilted his head much like a confused puppy would, eyes going a little unfocused as he tried to decipher what she had just said. Mei briefly wondered if this wild man has somehow been faking that he knew English before realizing that she herself had not used it. Being rather groggy and in pain, Mei had slipped back into her native Mandarin. Mildly embarrassed, Mei tried again, croaking out, “Did you pull me out of that desert?”  
The gawky figure blinked a few times before bursting into a fit of cackling laughter, creeping ever closer as he did so. “Hehe ohhh that’s a good one lovey! Nah, you’d recognize this,” he gestured to his scraggly form proudly, “from _miles_ away! Nah that was the old hag that gotcha, lucky thing too ‘er you’d probably be bird bait by now. Course she didn’t getcha at first, the scrappers did. She boughtcha off ‘em fore they could do anything too nasty too ya. Lucky thing too, or else you’d never have gotten to be in my pleasurable company! Them scrappers got a mean streak a mile wide, like to ‘violate’ things and the like.” He kept giggling as if such an idea was immensely funny to him, and Mei had to do everything in her power to avoid flinching every time he flung his arms about whilst talking. Apparently, his mile-a-minute mouth had to run off with the accompaniment of animated arm movement, neither of which showed any signs of stopping.  
He took another step so that he was almost right next to her, and Mei gagged mildly when she smelled him. He reeked of motor oil, body odor, and something burnt. “ _Definitely no showers,_ ” she grimaced to herself, eyeing him cautiously and clutching the ragged blanket close to her chest as he crouched down to be eye level with her. The twisted smile on his face grew impossibly wide, revealing sharp canines among crooked teeth, at least two of which glinted gold.  
“Aw sheila,” he said cheerfully, “ain’t no need to look so scared. I don’t bite! Roadie don’t much like it when I do that, says it’s ‘unsanitary’ or some shit like that. What’s that fat lard know anyways, I’m a perfect gentleman I am! Never take out too much skin, so ‘s not like it’ll scar up too bad. Bah, he’s a real cunt. Yer lucky to ‘ave my company, you are!” At this point his eyes had gone a little unfocused, and he appeared to be talking to himself more than Mei. His arms waved about irritably as he talked, the right one squeaking in protest of his frantic movements. “ _My God he’s still talking_ ,” Mei marveled as he continued to rant, apparently enjoying his conversation with himself. Cautiously, she started to shift away from the chattering man to avoid being decked by his flailing limbs, only to squeak in surprise when cool metal fingers clasped all-too-tightly around her wrist.  
Features suddenly marred by suspicion, the man narrowed his glowing eyes at her despite the ever-present smirk across his features. “Now where da ya think yer goin birdie?” he growled. “You ain’t gonna get a jump on me, no sir! Junkrat never gets caught unawares, can’t die today, not even to a cute little sheila like yerself.” Mei stared at him fearfully as his tirade continued, realizing that he had somehow mistaken her subtle escape effort as an attempt on his life. Her mind spun, attempting to keep up with his rambling speech as she thought back to what seemed to be his title. “ _Did…did he just refer to himself as a junky rat?_ ”  
Growing increasingly hysterical, the man before her was now staring intently down at her arm, seemingly fascinated by the purpling bruises that appeared there as he continued to speak. “I bet that ol’ bitch sent ya here to get me, didn’t she!? She just wants me treasure, she does. Kicks me out and then she can’t seem to leave me the fuck alone, I’m gonna show her, gonna strap every damn bomb I got to her ugly fuckin face before I-"  
“FAWKES!”  
Suddenly, the sheet metal door flew open with a thunderous crash, causing the so called “Junkrat” to bite down on his own tongue as he spasmed and fell over backwards in shock, releasing his death grip on Mei’s aching wrist. An irate looking elderly woman stalked into the room, closely followed by a mousy looking girl and what had to be the biggest man Mei had ever seen. He was so large he had to stand just outside the door, head stooped down so that the blank lenses on his eerie pig mask could stare into the room. The woman parked herself in front of the Rat-man, hands placed irritably on her hips and she glared down at him disapprovingly. He seemed to shrink into himself under her gaze, grinning sheepishly as he blinked up at her in the now lit room.  
“Jamison Fawkes,” the woman sighed tiredly, “are you frightening our guest even after I _explicitly_ told you to be on your best behavior if I let you watch her?”  
The man sat up, chuckling nervously. “Nah, _naaah_ , we was just having a good laugh, ain’t that right sheila?” He leaned over to give Mei a desperate look, as if asking her to back him up. She remained silent due to equal parts confusion and spite.  
The woman tutted, “I highly doubt that, your idea of a ‘laugh’ typically involves arson. You should be ashamed of yourself, harassing this lovely woman for no reason at all. Now get out of here, Mr. Fawkes, before I make you regret being born.”  
Stumbling to his feet, the man spat out “Can’t make me regret nothing, I’m a damn gift I am. I’m only leavin cause there’s too many people now, you all smell like shit! Besides, the lil’ lady may get too attached to me if my company is present fer too long. It’s me manly charm, it’s a gift and a burden.” Reeling around towards the door now, the man continued talking despite seemingly addressing the wall. “And I keep tellin ya, me name’s Junkrat! J-U-N…uhhhh…C…” His eyes started to drift apart a little as he limped out of the room, seemingly drained of all his rage in favor of trying to decipher the spelling of his own name.  
As soon as he stepped out of the door Mei’s vision was filled with the sight of wide, curious eyes staring directly into hers as the small girl pushed her face extremely close to Mei’s. She seemed to size her up for a moment before beaming widely and plopping herself down on the edge of the bed, sticking out her hand.  
Hesitantly, Mei shook it as the girl began talking. “Heya, the name’s D.Va but my friends call me Hana! Of course, no one gets to be my friend unless they can beat me in mech fighting, and I’m the undefeated champion so-”  
“D.va” found herself cut off and cried out in protest as she was abruptly pulled from the bed by the old woman whose scowl had now deepened tenfold. Chastising her softly, the woman gently pushed D.va towards the door, remarking, “I’m not surprised he couldn’t contain himself but you should know better. Shame on you, trying to brag about you meka career to our guest when she’s clearly confused and exhausted. Now go make sure Jamison hasn’t set the living room on fire.”  
Frowning deeply, D.va stalked out of the door into the other room, but not before briefly waving a goodbye to Mei and flashing a peace sign. The giant standing outside the door huffed softly, before silently turning around and walking away with heavy footsteps. Baffled, Mei silently turned her gaze to the elderly woman now kneeling next to her bed as she pulled out a patched, brown satchel from underneath. Mei noted that, thankfully, she seemed to smell much better than her lanky companion, though the scent of dust and sweat was still evident. The woman had white hair loosely tied back into a braid, with strands of it falling over her tanned and slightly wrinkled face. To her mild surprise, Mei noted that a tattoo encompassed her left eye, while the right one was covered in a leathery eyepatch. A ragged olive cloak fell over layers of clothes and combat armor, giving her a deceptively bulky appearance.  
Their eyes met as the satchel was unzipped, and the woman’s stern features softened slightly as a smile graced her lips. Chuckling kindly, she said “I apologize for those two. Hana is just a little overexcited to have company, is all. I’ll make sure she gives herself a proper introduction once she settles down. Fresh faces around here are fairly rare, or even welcome for that matter. And Jamison…Jamison is a product of his environment I suppose. Rest assured he’s well-meaning, but I fear the concept of personal boundaries is utterly foreign to him despite my best efforts…” The woman seemed to trail of into thought, her brow furrowing as she extracted a vial of blueish liquid and a syringe. Mei caught herself simultaneously trying to place the woman’s thick accent and eyeing the needle which was now filled with the syrupy liquid.  
This seemed to catch the woman’s attention, and with a slight smile she probed “I suppose you have many questions you would like answered, yes?” Mei nodded mutely, eliciting another chortle. “Well, for now all you need to know is that you are still very injured from your accident and I’ve been keeping you in a drug induced coma to further the healing process.” Catching Mei’s shocked expression, she clarified “Don’t worry child, believe it or not I was a field medic before I came to this place. I know what I’m doing. _Ana hakhod bali menna_.” And swiftly, she stuck the needle into the soft flesh of Mei’s upper arm, injecting the cool substance into her veins before Mei had a chance to cry out in protest.  
Her vision swam and Mei immediately sank back down into the cot beneath her, haziness closing in on her mind. She felt the blanket being tugged up to cover her again, and struggled to turn her gaze onto the elderly woman above her, mumbling, “Wait, I don’t even know where I am. Who are you people?” The woman quietly tucked the satchel back under the bed, stood up and patted Mei’s leg reassuringly as she spoke in a hushed tone.  
“My name is Ana. Rest assured, all your questions will be answered in due time. But for now, _nāmī_.” And with that, Mei drifted back into a deep sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When you're too "moral" to try to use google translate on Mandarin but will still sink low enough to steal Ana's voice lines from the game. Anyways, this is just a brief introduction to all the lovely characters in the story, though obviously it will mostly focus on Trashmouse and Icewitch. As always, feel free to leave feedback so I can do better for you lovelies.

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah this is my first fanfiction, I apologize if this first chapter seems a bit short but I'm just trying to get my crap together. Please let me know any thoughts or questions, I'm looking forwards to making you all suffer!


End file.
